Pat Robertson united evangelical Christians and pushed them into conservative politics
WJXT
NORFOLK, Va. Pat Robertson united tens of millions of evangelical Christians through the power of television and pushed them in a far more conservative direction with the personal touch of a folksy minister.
His biggest impact may have been wedding evangelical Christianity to the Republican party, to an extent once unimaginable.
The culture wars being waged today by just about all the national Republican candidates that is partly a product of Robertson, said veteran political analyst Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Robertson died Thursday at the age of 93.
Robertson's reach exploded with the rise of cable in the late 1970s. He galvanized many viewers into a political force when he unsuccessfully ran for president in 1988.
The next year, he created the deeply influential Christian Coalition. He sought to influence and impact the trajectory of the Republican Party and turn it into a pro-life, pro-family party, said Ralph Reed, who ran the coalition in the 1990s and now chairs the Faith & Freedom Coalition.
